Ewerdt Hilgemann's FREEZE FRAME Exhibition to Open 8/6 at Magnan Metz

Magnan Metz is pleased to announce Freeze Frame, an exhibition of new works by Ewerdt Hilgemann. Freeze Frame coincides with the artist's Park Avenue installation: Moments in a Stream, which will consist of seven large scale sculptures placed along the Park Avenue median strip from 52nd Street to 67th Street. The installation will be on view from August 1 to October 31. The gallery will host an opening reception on Wednesday, August 6 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

Freeze Frame will encompass both the main gallery and secondary viewing room and feature maquettes of all seven sculptures from the Park Avenue series, in addition to new work created for this exhibition. A video, documenting Hilgeman's creative process, will also be included in the exhibition.

Developed in the early 1980's, Hilgemann's "implosion" process begins by fabricating perfect, geometrically pure stainless steel forms, which are meticulously welded and polished to satin gloss. After the pieces are complete, the artist slowly pulls the air out with a vacuum pump, putting the natural atmospheric pressure to sculptural use and collapsing the forms into their final shape. In a delicate balance of planning and chance each piece acquires individual character demonstrating unexpected and striking possibilities of the material. "To me the implosion represents the inward spiral of energy to reach the core and mystery of matter, the ultimate beauty of creation," says Hilgemann.

About Ewerdt Hilgemann - Ewerdt Hilgemann (1938) was born in Witten, Germany and after briefly studying at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster, he attended Werkkunstschule and the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken. In the 1960's he had residencies at Kätelhöhn Printers in Wamel, Asterstein in Koblenz and Halfmannshof in Gelsenkirchen, Western Germany, and started to exhibit his work across Europe before moving to Gorinchem, the Netherlands in 1970. From 1977 to 1998 Hilgemann taught Concept Development at the Sculpture Department of Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Hilgemann's work is in public and private collections worldwide including Museum Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany; Museum Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort, The Netherlands; Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA; Art Field, Moscow, Russia; Vasareli Museum, Budapest, Hungary; Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands; and has had public installations from Busan, Korea to the City of West Hollywood, CA. Since 1984 the artist lives and works in Amsterdam.